The Cat Who Smelled a Rat
Book #23
by Lilian Jackson Braun

My rating: 4.5 / 5
Genre: Cozy mystery

When a series of brush fires threaten the safety of everyone in Moose County, is it due to drought conditions? Or is it arson? Then there’s an explosion in town and a pair of deaths, some of which could have been accidents, but former crime reporter Jim Qwilleran begins to look for threads between all of these events.

After the last couple of books seeming to have less and less of Qwilleran doing any real investigating, he shows us here what he’s capable of, digging into matters, asking questions, and getting to the truth of the various calamities. Though this book brings yet another weather extremity, it doesn’t affect the residents of Moose County as much as some of the previous ones did and adds suspense to the story in a way I enjoyed. And it’s always more interesting when one of the locals is heavily involved in the mystery, especially as the culprit! I felt like this one was a long time coming, though I won’t say any more to avoid spoilers.

What baffles me, though, is that there is a series of haikus included in the book, and not only do none of them follow the 5 syllables-7 syllables-5 syllables pattern, they don’t even have 17 syllables in any format! I guess Braun is better at prose than she is at poetry, though it’s certainly majorly out of character for Qwilleran to not make note of this or for Polly and the other judges to choose winners that aren’t correct at all. Still, that’s a minor quibble in the grand scheme of things. I can’t believe I’m down to 6 books left in the series! I hope to find some more gems in those final books!

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